Game 77: Warriors 130, Utah 102

With seeming chaos swirling all around them off the court, the Warriors continued to show great stability in between the lines Sunday night at Oracle Arena.

A day after assistant coach Darren Erman was fired for violating company policy and two weeks after assistant coach Brian Scalabrine was demoted for disagreeing with head coach Mark Jackson, the Warriors showcased a harmonious offense that made a 130-102 victory over Utah look easy.

The Warriors, who led by as many as 31 points, established a new season high in scoring with 1:31 remaining, when Marreese Speights slammed home Jordan Crawford pass for a 127-98 lead. Draymond Green’s three-pointer on the next possession gave the Warriors a season-high 17 three for the game and tied the team’s bests with 52 made field goals and 34 assists.

Despite a glut of recent injuries and loss of two coaches and never-ending conjecture about the future of the head coach, the Warriors just keep taking care of business. They won for the 12th time in their past 17 games, surpassing last season’s 47-win total and getting to 19 games above .500 for the first time since 1994.

Center Andrew Bogut returned from a four-game absence because of a pelvic/groin contusion, and small forward Andre Iguodala looked sharp in his second straight game after missing a contest with right knee tendinitis. David Lee missed his fifth straight game, and Jackson said an MRI exam on the power forward’s strained right hamstring showed nerve inflammation that could sideline him for an extended period.

“We certainly miss him. We certainly need him,” Jackson said of Lee. “He’s a guy who is doing everything possible to get back on the floor. He’s frustrated right now and rightfully so. We don’t know how long, but I’ll tell you what: He’s doing everything possible to get back on the floor for this basketball team. … It seemed like he’d be ready, and he’s not.”

The Warriors swept the Jazz for the first time since the then-New Orleans Jazz debuted in 1974-75 and won this season’s four-game set by an average of 14.5 points. All historical accomplishments are pointing toward a pretty good current playoff position, too.

The Warriors are 1 ½ games back of fifth-place Portland and one game ahead of seventh-place Dallas. Memphis and Phoenix are two games behind the Warriors.

The Jazz (24-52) are at the opposite of the spectrum. They have lost 17 of their past 20, including three streaks of at least five straight losses, to fall a game back of the Lakers for the Western Conference’s worst record.

Coming off a defensive effort during with the Warriors allowed a season-low 69 points and a season-worst 32.1 percent shooting in and 102-69 victory over Sacramento on Friday. They decided to highlight Sunday’s game with their explosive offense.

Stephen Curry had wrapped up his league-leading 16th game with at least 20 points and 10 assists 55 seconds into the third quarter and had compiled his NBA-best 30-10 game with 28 seconds to play in the third. He finished with 31 points, a career-high-tying 16 assists and three steals in 29 minutes.

Not to be outdone, Klay Thompson went for 33 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting in 31 minutes as the Warriors’ starting guards outscored Utah’s starting backcourt 64-34.

Curry scored or assisted on the Warriors’ first 26 points, and after unassisted three-pointer by Thompson snapped the streak, Curry added one more three-point play. Curry had 16 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting and six assists to stake the Warriors with a 32-20 lead before getting his first rest of the game with 2:22 remaining in the first quarter.

The Warriors extended their lead to 40-22 on a Jordan Crawford three-pointer less than two minutes in the second quarter, but Utah responded with a 13-0 run that trimmed the deficit to five points and had Jackson scrambling to get his starters back on the floor. The starters regained a double-digit lead 15 seconds after being back in the game, were up by at least that much for seven minutes of the half’s final 7:13 and went into the break ahead 66-52.

Iguodala scored seven straight points to ignite a 15-2, third-quarter run, which was capped by a Green dunk that gave the Warriors an 82-60 lead with 7:23 remaining. With 28.3 seconds left in the third, Curry and Thompson had each poured in 30 points, and the Warriors had already reached the 100-point mark.